Saturday 21 May - Paris to Zurich

Today went very easily - much easier than I had anticipated.  The Metro was quiet at this time on a Saturday morning although we had our longest wait for a train at Barbes Rochechouard - 5 minutes!
0824 TGV Paris Est to Zurich 1324.

Today there were no soldiers with automatic weapons hiding in the flowers of Gare de l'Est

 

Our train left on time and stayed on time right through to Zurich.  After Basel there were very few people in first class but we stopped at several places before Zurich and picked up some local passengers then.  Zurich was very busy but we found a snack and some chocolate and it was time to board the RailJet to Insbruck.
1440 Zurich to Insbruck 1806

The train was practically empty.  All through the cars there are screens like the one above giving the schedule and the actual times achieved.  At each station the connections with other trains as well as local buses are shown.  The speed was also shown.  This allowed us to keep track of our progress and knew precisely when we would arrive at Insbruck - on time of course.

Around Reichenburg, still in Switzerland, I saw some tank traps in the grass next to the railway line.  Haven't seen tank traps for many years.

The section through the Aarlberg pass to St. Anton was an amazing climb.  We passed over some high viaducts and saw the snow on many mountain peaks.

We walked to the hotel in Insbruck.  It is in a great location in the old city and Mozart, among others stayed here.  I wonder which room he had!

After checking in we went for a walk through the old town.  It was pretty busy and there were some crazies, the most notable being a man with a hat shaped like a pink pig and carrying a blow-up naked woman.   We decided to have a drink and a meal at a quiet place on a side street.  We sat outside.  It started fine but the rain came on and we had to finish inside.  We had rabbit and Wiener schnitzel.